I’ve lived in North Lanarkshire all my life (or rather in places that the Tories creatively reimagined as North Lanarkshire as part of their botched mid-90s gerrymandering effort), but I must admit I didn’t have a clue where Murdostoun ward is until I looked it up for the purposes of this blogpost. It’s unusual in that it’s a central belt ward in which an independent candidate topped the poll in the last two rounds of local elections. That pattern continued in yesterday’s by-election, and the winning candidate had exactly the same name as before – because he’s the son of the late Councillor Robert McKendrick, whose untimely death caused the vacancy.
Murdostoun by-election result (24th June 2021):
Independent – McKendrick: 41.3% (n/a)
SNP: 24.3% (-3.3)
Labour: 16.9% (-6.8)
Independent – Arthur: 8.0% (+5.6)
Conservatives: 7.2% (-5.7)
Greens: 1.7% (n/a)
Independence for Scotland: 0.4% (n/a)
Reform UK: 0.2% (n/a)
I haven’t given a percentage change for Mr McKendrick because he’s technically a new candidate, but he increased his father’s vote share from four years ago by a whopping 13.7%.
A few people on Twitter are suggesting this is a terrible result for the SNP, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch – there were clearly unusual local and personal factors in play. The SNP’s vote dropped by less than their two main party political rivals, ie. Labour and the Tories – or to put it another way, there was a net swing from Labour to SNP and from Tory to SNP. So it’s not too bad an outcome, really. The SNP candidate was Julia Stachurska, who is a New Scot (I presume she’s from Poland if her surname is any guide), so even in defeat, that sends out a strong message about the ongoing electoral rights of EU citizens in Scotland.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first time Independence for Scotland have actually stood in an election, because of course they withdrew their planned candidates from the Holyrood election last month and backed Alba instead. I must say I can’t really understand why they’re continuing in existence, given that they’re in total agreement with Alba on their main policy preoccupations (ie. greater urgency on independence and women’s sex-based rights). I wonder if this result will give them pause for thought, because it’s markedly worse than Alba’s supposedly ‘disastrous’ result a few weeks ago. It does answer one question I had, though – I thought the ‘Ronseal’ name of Independence for Scotland might in itself attract a few votes, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
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You can catch up with the latest episode of the Scot Goes Popcast HERE.
